Costume Information

Way too long. Like a million hours. Two weeks on and off is probably accurate.

Description

Why would I think it was a good idea to try and make this??

WHY!?!?!

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Most of the information on how I made her is in the journal!

Hm, I feel like I've come to the end of a marathon with this dress, to be quite honest. Though I do owe the fact I started and finished this project to Frazzy XD I can always count on her to bitch slap me back into sense and iron all my creases.

Part of me thinks now I've finally managed to reach that point a cosplayer gets to when they create their signature 'epic' costume, because, to be quite honest, I feel like I don't have any skill to top this. The other half, however, tells me I've only set a benchmark for myself... FFFFFFFFF

Either way, I adored wearing this, as complain-y as I probably sounded! I love Beatrice's character so much and had an incredibly good time trying to channel that into photo's and things.

A few things went wrong, like the movement of the red piece in the bodice. Ideally I'll find some way to pad it out so it doesn't crinkle over my washboard chest and look really stupid >:
The bows on my shoes fell off just before the masquerade! I wouldn't have thought it to matter too much, since you can't see them, but I spotted some photo's where my shoes are visible x___x
More clips are definitely needed in the wig to keep it comfortably on; it sort of slipped back a bit.
I need to take in the black over skirt. I made it to fit snugly to my mannequin, but apparently I've either lost about 4 inches on my waist in a week or I just miscalculated when it came to sewing. This is fine, since I want to sew the zip better in the back anyway, so I'll redo that when it comes to taking the skirt in.
The ring was made last minute... Primark, fimo, gold spray paint and sharpie. Let's just say props and accessories aren't my forte, but I guess it did it's job and didn't look as terrible in photo's as it does up close!
Crinoline ended up falling off me! I was so lucky to have a trail run in Keele Hall on Thursday and discover this problem, or my dress would have likely fallen apart on the catwalk 0___0
The collar kept twisting around. Not sure what I could do to stop that aside from tape it to my neck.
NEVER ENOUGH TAPE. TAKE BACKUP TAPE. AND BACKUP SAFETYPINS.

Ah, aside from things I could improve/chance (more than above, and which I'm totally aware of) I was flattered to death by all the people who came to speak to me wearing this. I'm not really sure how to accept compliments and I felt on the verge of tears a lot XD;;; I'M LAME, OKAY. It was very overwhelming, but I appreciate every single comment. People are too nice ;___;

Not sure what else I can say... If you have any questions about anything I did just ask! I'm happy to help if you think I somehow can 0__o

Aw, thank you, that's so sweet!
She's becoming something of a team effort, which makes me REALLY wish I'd bought a crinoline! (Derp derp, I didn't even think about buying one at the start XD;) Lot's of headaches all round, but hopefully it'll be worth it in the end~

Love this dress so much! It’s all so beautifully made. I can’t believe how neat all that bias tape is, it looks fantastic. I also love the red underskirt, and your braided hair bun thingy. So impressed ^_^

I think I told you in the masquerade queue how much I loved this, but I'll say it again. Really beautifully made, and I absolutely loved your wig. You pulled off the haughty Beatrice look perfectly too!

Journal

Almost there... (Posted 4th August 2010)

Finished sewing the faff on today. Not sure how happy I am about the red boob bit, I'm not as buxom as Beatrice so it looks kind of pathetic... Going to experiment with how stuffing it will look, but I guess in the end it doesn't matter that much.

All I need to do is put the zip in the back and sort the gem on the bow and she's complete... Wow.

Finished! (Posted 1st August 2010)

Finished the skirt today, finally! Just as well as it's getting transported down south this weekend.

Bit too tired to update properly on it, so will likely do that next entry~

Sleeves (Posted 31st July 2010)

Lots more getting done now. Figured out most of the trick to the sleeves, so they just need to be added to the poofy bits and the top now!

Very happy with how it's turning out!! These sleeves are probably the best part of the costume so far XDD

Edit:

So these sleeves. They're like... made up of 5 pieces? There's one black tube attached to the bodice, attached to that are two cones.
One is a white cone which the pleated piece is sewn to so it flares out right, the other is the black cone covering that with the gold trim on the end.
I made these pieces separately instead of just sewing the pleated part to the black bit because in all the references I have, they definitely look separate - and aside from that I wouldn't have been able to get the gold bit on and it would have lied really funny.
The other bit is the top ruffle, which has elastic set into the bottom and middle to give it a nice poof. The tight elastic in this bit also holds the other sleeve up my arm and stops the bodice from slipping down as the sleeve is quite heavy.
This piece was sewn up and slid onto the arm, the non elasticated end was then hand sewn over the first part of the sleeve so there's no top stitching. This bit was particularly difficult for me because I'm TERRIBLE at hand sewing. It took me a while XD;;;

Okay, reading over that it actually doesn't make that much sense... It makes more sense when you look at it, I think...

finally! (Posted 30th July 2010)

All the bling for the outer skirt has been sewn on! I probably should have counted how long it took me, but honestly, I'm just glad that it's done. This kind of thing is completely beyond my skill level so I'm so chuffed it's looking good~

The sleeve pieces are all cut out, so they'll be going on today as well as the bottom trim.

After that the red boob bit will get it's stripes, sewn on and then I'll add the white foofy trim.

Other than that it's just tidying up and zips etc to put in~

Seems like a long way is still to go, but I feel the most difficult and time consuming jobs are out of the way, so touch wood it'll be just a case of putting things together from now on!

Vrrmmmmmmmmm (Posted 29th July 2010)

I FUCKING LOVE SEWING BIAS!!

Now with added BATKINZO.
(Which would have been far more appropriate if I'd actually USED Kinzo's face... Whatever, first image reaction I could find will do)

Sigh (Posted 28th July 2010)

Top is fully boned now and sewn together. Just need to add sleeves, trim, red boob bit and the while ruffles/bow. JUST. =___=

Skirt is a disaster. Whenever the red ruffles are added it keeps collapsing in on itself. Need to figure out some trickery to see what can keep it sturdy or I'll not be able to take her to Ame.

A glimpse of what hopefully will be (Posted 23rd July 2010)

So, we patterned out another skirt over the crinoline to attach the red ruffles to, as they were distorting the shape. There's still some inconsistencies with it, so it's slowly getting padded out in the right places lol.

Using the same pattern for the over skirt we cut out the black material and fixed it together to see if it fit.... IT DOES!! It's just pinned and folded on right now, but by next week it'll be sewn up.

The bodice pieces were cut out of the custom pattern Frazzy adapted and pinned on the dummy, too, with the red pinned to the skirt at the front just to see how it would look. Very witch-y so far, haha.

Bodice (Posted 22nd July 2010)

The result of many hours work! Unfortunately I can't really take any credit for it, since Frazzy worked on most of it XD;;

Compared to what it WAS, this is beyond a great pattern now. Just need to get the right interfacing and start cutting it out and putting it together for real~

Gathers (Posted 14th July 2010)

Okay, if I thought the crinoline was a bitch, then I sure as hell wasn't prepared for this. It's taken too long, and too many bloody adjustments, but the foof is almost done!! just need to add one more drawstring in the back piece and sew it together!!

Very, very chuffed with how it looks. (Which, fyi, is 80million times better than this crappy camera pic)

Crinoline (Posted 8th July 2010)

FFFFFFINALLY.

This crinoline has been an arse to make, but now it's done and I can get on with the rest of this darned thing!!